Hi from Columbia MO!

[Patty Furkin]

I'm counting my blessings today here in Columbia MO, after watching the morning news of the devastation of Storm Sandy. No matter how awesome the designs and structures, God and Mother Nature can still prove to us we can do better! Back to what I'm in here for: I'm Patty Furkin, originally from Granite City IL. My family moved to Fulton MO in 1970, and this area is where I ended up staying, due to jobs I couldn't resist. I was a subcontracts administrator for Daniel International Corporation (Fluor) during construction of the Callaway Nuclear Power Plant, and I ended up working there as an equipment operator. Talk about watching an area change! It's interesting to watch how large companies can pump money into an area, make it come to life, and then once the dust settles from the construction, the area does too. In some areas, the people succeed; in some areas, they end up failing. Callaway County is still doing fairly well. I moved to Columbia after retirement/disability to be closer to the University and my docs, and I love the city and the things it has to offer. I'm not active in building or planning anymore, but my interest is still there.

[Maister]

Welcome from SW Michigan

[otterpop]

How-do from the Queen City of the Rockies, under the Big Sky, in the Last Best Place.

[Hink]

Welcome from the Great State of Ohio! Glad to have you.

[dandy_warhol]

Hello from upstate New York!

[mike gurnee]

Welcome from 8 hours west. I interviewed with Columbia once, and loved the place (except for the concrete canopies downtown). Unfortunately a tall fellow with hair was also a candidate.

[Melalvai]

Patty, I'm in Kirksville, MO. We moved here a couple years ago from CoMo. Seems like all the bike/ped infrastructure improvements happened right at the end of the GetAbout grant, and right after we left, but some of the bike/ped programming ended then as well, so I got the best of it. Lessons I learned in CoMo are inspiring me in Kirksville.

Mike Gurnee, my mom just inherited land out by Greensburg. Amazing tornado recovery. She calls herself a "gentleman farmer" and is a reluctant one at that, but her dad entailed the land so she can't sell it to the tenants (who are distant relatives).

My interest in planning stems from bicycling for transportation, something that happened when we became a one-car family 8 years ago. What seemed like a hardship opened up new worlds-- policy, advocacy, planning & design, things I never dreamed I'd one day call "fascinating". My daughter is a senior in high school and she's considering a career in civil engineering, another result of my interest in the field.

Alas, I didn't get interested in all this until I was well on my way in a career in biomed research. It is interesting in its own way but I may yet switch careers one day.

[Salmissra]

Hello, from Dallas, TX!

[luckless pedestrian]

welcome form the western lakes region of Maine!